Social History

The Bronze Age is frequently framed in social evolutionary terms. Viewed as the period which saw the emergence of social differentiation, the development of long-distance trade, and the intensification of agricultural production, it is seen as the...

WINNER OF THE GRAND PRIX DU LIVRE D'IDEESThe French: serious and frivolous, charming and infuriating, rational and mystical, pessimistic, pleasure-loving - and perhaps more than any other people, intellectual. This original and entertaining book shows...

In this collection of remarkable biographical portraits, the great essayist and intellectual historian Isaiah Berlin brings to life a wide range of prominent twentieth-century thinkers, politicians, and writers. These include Winston Churchill, Franklin...

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MARK HADDON In Postcard From The Past, Tom Jackson has gathered a collection of the funniest, weirdest and most moving real messages from the backs of old postcards. ...

A beautifully illustrated history of the Queen of Flowers and her enduring power in our gardens, art, religion and imagination. 'Fascinating... I'll never look at a rose in quite the same way again.' Adrian Tinniswood The rose is bursting with...

Now updated with new chapters on culture and on populism, this seminal text disputes the view that we are experiencing a "clash of civilizations" as well as the idea that globalization leads to cultural homogenization. Instead, Jan Nederveen Pieterse...

As the call for a new understanding of our national history gets louder, this book turns the received imperial story of Britain on its head. Britain's Empire recounts the long overlooked narrative of the resisters, revolutionaries and revolters who stood...

Victorian pumping stations are colourful cathedrals of utility. Their imposing and striking exteriors enclose highly decorative cast-iron frames, built to encage powerful steam engines. They are glorious buildings which display the Victorians'...

A magnificent debut novel, which follows in the spirit of Conrad's Heart of Darkness, in which an alienated student named Lopez joins the Vietnam war to escape from his past and himself. Forced out of self-pity by the brutality and injustice surrounding...

Traditionally, in British society, the milkman has been a family friend, a sex symbol and a cheerful chappie. He has been the eyes and ears of the community, and his genetic legacy has supposedly passed into the lineage of housewives.This collection of...

The Underground Sea is a succinct, urgent collection of writing from John Berger's archive. It brings together for the first time his work on mineworkers and the miners' strikes and has been edited as a set of actions for today. Publication of The...

Windharp: Niall MacMonagle's essential anthology of the last century of Irish poetryThe Easter Rising of 1916 was a foundational moment of the independent Irish state; but while that insurrection continues to divide opinion, there is no disagreement as...

The Arts and Crafts Movement was a reaction to the brutality of working life and the sterility of industrial design in Victorian Britain. Although Arts and Crafts was initially a mediaeval revival, the movement was always about the artist craftsman and...

This book examines the ordinary, routine, daily behaviour, experiences and beliefs of people in Scotland from the earliest times to 1600. Its purpose is to discover the character of everyday life in Scotland over time and to do so, where possible, within...

Hollyhocks and cabbages, roses and runner beans: the English cottage garden combined beauty and utility, pride and productivity. But what was the reality of the space immortalised in images of thatched cottages with floral borders and ducks on the path?...

WINNER OF THE POLITICAL BOOK AWARDS POLITICAL HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2014. Published to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the Profumo scandal, An English Affair is a sharp-focused snapshot of a nation on the...

One of the most famous queens in history, Mary Stuart lived in her homeland for just twelve years: as a dauntless child who laughed at her friends' seasickness as they sailed to safety in France and later, on her return as a 18-year-old widow to take...

A captivating exploration of Britain's most iconic contemporary buildings, from the Barratt home to the Millennium Dome.'A love letter to contemporary buildings and a fantastic account of recent British history, rich in humour.' NINA STIBBE'Brilliant,...

In this long-awaited book (already a major bestseller in Italy) Ginsborg has created a fascinating, sophisticated and definitive account of how Italy has coped, or failed to cope, with the past two decades. Contemporary Italy strongly mirrors Britain -...

A definitive history of mescaline that explores its mind-altering effects across cultures, from ancient America to Western modernity Mescaline became a popular sensation in the mid-twentieth century through Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception, after...

Millions of us suffer from addiction, including psychiatrist and recovering alcoholic Carl Erik Fisher. But where does this centuries-old behaviour come from and how should we treat it? As a young doctor, Carl Erik Fisher came face to face with his own...

The essential anti-racist book from one of the world's leading voices for change'With This Is Why I Resist, Dr Shola is shaking a nation out of its slumber.' Annie Lennox OBE'Smart and courageous, this book should be on everyone's must-read list.' Naomi...

The Blitz of 1940-41 is one of the most iconic periods in modern British history - and one of the most misunderstood. The 'Blitz spirit' is celebrated by some, whereas others dismiss it as a myth. Joshua Levine's thrilling biography rejects the tired...

For thousands of years, humans have built walls and assaulted them, admired walls and reviled them. Great Walls have appeared on nearly every continent, the handiwork of people from Persia, Rome, China, Central America, and beyond. They have accompanied...

The ten years from 2010 have been devastating. A decade of austerity and paralysis nurtured contempt for leaders, institutions and fellow citizens and fertilised the ground for a rebellious Brexit. It has been a decade characterised by national tragedies...

It is a popular misconception that Hamburg is a coastal city. In fact, despite possessing Europe s second-busiest port, this 'amphibious city' lies some 65 miles from the North Sea. Its long-standing image as a 'city without culture' is also something of...

For centuries, England’s country houses have been where rich and grand families have displayed their wealth and status. Today, England is still well endowed with these houses, although many of them are now popular visitor attractions instead of private...

Everyday life in the teeming metropolis during William Shakespeare's time in the city. Shakespeare's London was a bustling, teeming metropolis that was growing so rapidly that the government took repeated, and ineffectual, steps to curb its expansion...

A fascinating history of China's relations with the West-told through the lives of two eighteenth-century translatorsThe 1793 British embassy to China, which led to Lord George Macartney's fraught encounter with the Qianlong emperor, has often been...

A hilarious assortment of the weirdest and wackiest tales ever to come out of the classroom - and they're all true. Featuring the flamboyant swimming teacher who spent his spare time fighting bears, the story of how a fight with his teacher...

As Captain Scott lay freezing and starving to death on his return journey from the South Pole, he wrote with a stub of pencil his final words: 'For God's sake look after our people.' Uppermost in his mind were the three women who would now be widows:...

With over 1,000 colourful images, Robert Opie brings to life the 1920s and captures the mood of this radical decade in Great Britain. The Twenties were a time for change and invention. The arrival of the wireless provided a new form of entertainment and...

The core of what we call St James's dates from the late seventeenth century, when large estates were leased by the Crown to the landed gentry after the Restoration in 1660. St James's clubs, coffee houses and institutions have been shaped by enterprise,...

The country house was the focal point of Georgian architecture, landscape and society. This book explores the meaning of this distinct cultural form using a wide range of examples and approaches. Dana Arnold presents an analysis of the social and...

It may not be the longest, deepest or widest river in the world but few bodies of water reveal as much about a nation's past and present, or are suggestive of its future, as England's River Thames. Tales of legendary lock-keepers and long-vanished weirs...

The image of Poland has once again been impressed on European consciousness. Norman Davies provides a key to understanding the modern Polish crisis in this lucid and authoritative description of the nation's history. Beginning with the period since 1945,...

'I wish you a Merry Xmas but no compliments of the season' - Jane AustenChristmas comes up time and time again in Jane Austen's books, from childish chaos in Persuasion to fraught festivities in Northanger Abbey. Join Christmas historian Maria Hubert on...

The 1960s was a period of change - the beginning of the world as we know it. It was the time of Beatlemania, the Apollo moon landings and Doctor Who, which had every small child hiding behind the sofa. Crazy fashions abounded, with bell-bottomed...

WINNER OF THE 2022 ANISFIELD-WOLF BOOK AWARD (NONFICTION) A BLOOMBERG BEST NONFICTION BOOK "Does not pull its punches."-The Independent "Enthralling."-New York Times "A compelling story of racial and ethnic animosity."-Wall Street Journal An illuminating...

"Pity Transformed" is an examination of how pity was imagined and expressed in classical antiquity. It pays particular attention to the ways in which the pity of the Greeks and Romans differed from modern ideas. Among the topics investigated in...